The Event: You’re in the Coffeehouse with Jarvis

Welcome back to the stretch run of The Event. As you hopefully know by now, it is exceedingly unlikely that it will return for a second season. In fact, if your favorite NBC show has not been renewed yet (and is not Parenthood or “L&O:SVU“), don’t hold your breath. It sounds like they will be cleaning house this summer. Sorry Chuck fans but it’s not looking good.

That said, I have my suspicions that The Event will be going out with a bang. It’s improved over the course of the last few weeks but could never overcome its rough start. Let’s see what they have in store for us this week!

In Murmansk, Russia, the dead ice body arrives and scientist guy in a biohazard outfit starts cutting it open. I don’t watch a lot of doctor shows but I think this scene would have been improved if he narrated each cut and described what he was doing. In summation, this was gross. This is a terrible job.

Back in the super-tense White House conference room, we have a million closeups of coffee, sugar packets, coffee pouring into mugs, lips to coffee mugs, and Whos dancing on the head of a pin. VP Jarvis thought it would be fun to assassinate the President via sugar so he could take over. The President drinks the coffees, slurs the speeches, and falls to the ground. Try not to look so guilty there, Jarvis. You may wish to consider snatching up that packet with your DNA on it, erasing all of the White House camera tapes, and also killing everyone in the U.S. Government because there is no way you could possibly get away with this. Also, do you remember how you are already considered a traitor? Sigh.

They rush the President to the hospital and the doctors state that he suffered a stroke. Blake goes to speak with him and he tells Blake to make sure that Jarvis does not ascend to the presidency. HE SAW THE MALICE IN HIS EYES. Blake talks to the chief of staff who wants Jarvis appointed President as soon as possible. However, Blake says that Jarvis tried to kill Martinez once before so that may not be the best idea ever. That is rock-solid logic.

Sophia is pleased. Very pleased.

Hey, look! It’s Leila and she’s talking to Sean again and then Michael apprehends her again. Did we need to see this happen AGAIN? Ehhhhh… NO. Leila’s bodyguard Luis strolls up and demands that she be taken to Sophia. Michael finally agrees and then as they are walking, Michael slams the bodyguard’s head into the turnbuckle/rear car light. That was some vintage Rowdy Roddy Piper right there.

Michael drags Luis into the kitchen, bundles him up into some trash bags, and Leila mops up the blood. Just then, Sophia predictably knocks on the door. Leila buys some time so Michael can change his shirt. Sophia wants to know if Luis’ body is inside some trash bags. Michael acts concerned but ends up lying instead of confirming her suspicions.

Back in France, Sean and Vicky speed along on a train and consider Leila’s new information. He finds out that “Irina Bogdanov” is the name of a ship docked in the port of Murmansk. On the ship, the doctor continues cutting up the dead body, this time with narration, much to my delight. Continuing the doctor cliches, he accidentally cuts his bio-hazard suit. He tries to convince the security guard to let him out… but we don’t find out what happened until much later in the episode. Probably death.

Sean and Vicky take the next train to Siberia (these guys would be awesome on The Amazing Race, right?), steal a raft, and make their way onto the ship. They look around the ship but they don’t see anyone. Anyone alive that is. They see a lot of gross dead guys so they don some bio-hazard suits and poke the bodies with sticks because that’s what you’re supposed to do with dead bodies. Ok, they don’t really do that but they might as well. They eventually find the Test Subject who happens to be missing his lungs. Hey, it’s not like he was using them anymore. It’s called being an organ donor, people. Look into it. They apprehend a straggler who after saying he “doesn’t know anything” about 7 times, proceeds to spill about 7 pieces of information. The virus inside the dead body was the Spanish Flu, which killed 50 million people during WWI. The bad lungs are currently en route to America. DOH!

Blake pulls up some security footage from the conference room. He does some video enhancing and correctly surmises that Jarvis spiked the President’s coffee. Just as Blake and Elias’ chief of staff have their “enhance” moment, Jarvis walks in and says it’s time for section 4 of the 25th Amendment. Jarvis’ secret bat phone rings and Sophia checks in and reassures him that the president will eventually lapse into a coma and die. No worries, mate!

Blake does some more enhancing and finds some close-up footage of Jarvis swiping the packet off the conference table. The coffee spilled on the floor but a clean-up crew already is on the scene and the evidence is gone. Bummer!

The cabinet session begins and the vote to install Jarvis as acting president is unanimous. Blake looks down and notices a coffee stain on his sleeve. Get to the lab/dry cleaner immediately! Nobody wants Jarvis to be President / a perfectly good shirt ruined!

Well, that was an episode of The Event. Look, the thing is, I really like Blair Underwood as the President. He looks the part, he’s strong, and I believe his sincerity. But I didn’t feel his collapse on the emotional level that was intended. Obviously, after 18 episodes, the stakes aren’t there yet. Martinez isn’t going to die. The real effect of this turn of events is that we lose Underwood for an episode or two and that’s not good.

As for Sean and Vicky’s wacky European adventures, the good news is that while they used to be 5 steps behind, they are closing the gap. Obviously, that’s the point of moving towards a finale, but it’s good news nonetheless. They still feel stuck in a different show especially since the Dempsey storyline will be a dead end without an “oh, by the way” in the finale.